Adapted by Rena Basch from Cooking Light magazine June 2010

Looking for a change of pace from traditional potato salad? This dish could be called “Not-Just Potato Salad.” This recipe is a flexible, vinaigrette-based powerhouse that you can load up with your favorite veggies. I particularly love it because it can be made from whatever fresh vegetables are available at the farmers market during the harvest season, or if it’s winter, sub out the ingredients like fresh corn, zucchini and green beans for frozen. During the winter-time, skip the cherry tomatoes; it’s still delicious.

For a beautiful looking salad, use a mix of red, purple, Yukon and brown-skinned potatoes. If you don’t have a variety of colorful potatoes, just use fingerlings or small red potatoes. You can serve this dish at room temperature just after it’s tossed together, or you can make it ahead, and serve chilled.

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh corn kernels, about 2 ears.  
2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 ½ tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
3/4 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
¾ cup vertically sliced red onion
¾ cup diced zucchini
 ¾ cup chopped green beans
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 425°.

Cut the corn off of the cobs. Place corn and chopped potatoes on a jelly-roll pan (or cookie sheet). Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil and toss to coat. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Place roasted potato and corn in a large bowl.  Combine tarragon and next 5 ingredients (through pepper) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, stirring constantly with a whisk. Drizzle potato mixture with dressing; toss gently to coat.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, green beans and zucchini to pan; cook 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Add zucchini mixture and tomatoes to potato mixture; toss gently to combine.

Gochujang-and-Sesame-Roasted Butternut Squash

by Rena Basch

When the latest, miraculously delicious, trendy ingredients are promoted by for-profit cooking magazines, I ususally try to ignore them. Or just smirk smugly, as in “I’m not getting sucked into searching for the impossible-to-find, often expensive, use-it-once-and-never again latest-n-greatest ingredient.” But, there are exceptions. Gochujang. I love this stuff. Gochujang is a Korean hot pepper paste; a savory, spicy, sweet, and pungent fermented Korean condiment made from red chili, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, and salt. It’s got this sweet & spicy thing going on. If you’ve had bi bim bap at a Korean restaurant, the flavor will be familiar, as it is an ingredient in the sauce typically served with bi bim bap. It’s not that difficult to find in the Asian sections of local grocery stores or any of the Asian grocery stores around town, such as the Galleria Market on Packard in Ann Arbor, or Hua Xing Asia Market on Washtenaw in Ypsilanti. Look for it in square-shaped red tubs.

On to the recipe. Gochujang & sesame roasted butternut squash from bon appetit magazine. According to bon appetit, “This would work with any other winter squash—acorn and delicata don’t even have to be peeled.” However I love it with the butternut, which roasts well, and is easy to find at this time of the year, unlike delicata which does not keep as well as the hard winter squashes. These days, I’ll say this is my favorite preparation of butternut squash.  Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, sliced ¼” thick
Scallions, thinly sliced
Flaky sea salt

Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 425°. Whisk sesame seeds, oil, gochujang, and soy sauce in a large bowl. Add squash and toss to coat. Divide squash between 2 rimmed baking sheets, arranging in a single layer. Roast, rotating sheets once, until tender and browned on some edges, 25–30 minutes. Serve topped with scallions and salt.

Here’s the link to the recipe in bon appetit

Massaged Kale Salad with Dried Cranberries and Feta

Want to get more kale into your (or some family members’) diet?  Here’s a technique to win over the doubters, kale-o-phobes and greens-resisters.  Sprinkle the kale with a little salt and then give it a massage.  Seriously.  Hang with me here.

I learned about “massaged kale” salad from Living Zen Organics, the café and organic food nonprofit associated with The Detroit Zen Center.  For a while Living Zen was coming to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market selling raw foods such as dried kale chips and delicious, tender kale salads.  I could not understand how the kale was so tender without being blanched or cooked first, so I asked, and learned you just need to gently massage the kale.

The other secret to crowd-friendly kale salads is really no secret: pair the bitter green with sweet things, fresh or dried fruit and/or a sweet salad dressing.  This recipe below is one of my 3 favorite massaged kale salads (it’s so hard to choose just one), but I’m sharing this one because it’s easy, can be made with local ingredients, and I’ve seen kids actually enjoy eating it.

1 big bunch kale, Lacinato is nice, or a big box of baby kale leaves works too

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt

1/4 cup finely diced red onion

1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries

3/4 cup small-diced apple

1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup crumbled Feta cheese

If using Lacinato/dinosaur kale: wash leaves and pat it dry. Slice off the stiff stems below the leaves and continue slicing the stem away from the leaf until you have cut a thin v-shape into the kale leaf and removed the tough stem all the way up. Stack the kale leaves two or three at a time, roll them up, and slice the leaves into thin ribbons. If using curly kale, remove the stems and slice it into bite sized pieces.

Place the sliced kale in a large mixing bowl.  (If using baby kale leaves, just toss them into the bowl without de-stemming or slicing.)  Sprinkle the kale with ~ ½ t salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for two minutes.  Set a timer!  Grab big handfuls of kale, squeeze, release, toss, grab big handfuls, squeeze, release, toss, etc, you get the picture.  You’ll notice the kale start to turn a darker green and the texture of the kale will begin to soften a bit. If using baby kale, you’ll need only about 45 seconds. Sometimes if using baby kale leaves, I don’t even bother to massage it at all.

Toss in the red onions, dried fruit, apples, and sunflower seeds.  Combine everything.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and sugar. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle feta cheese over the top and serve.  A few grinds of black pepper over the top are nice too.

Adapted from recipe found on melskitchencafe.com blog.